1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to method and system for printing job management and in particular, it relates to method and system for managing print on-demand (POD) printing jobs with a remote cache.
2. Description of Related Art
Increasingly POD jobs are submitted to and handled by network or web-based systems. For example, a customer may place a POD job order to a web-store server to print a booklet that is a compilation of several articles. The customer may supply some or all of the articles, or more likely the web-store server will gather some or all of these articles from its own database and/or from one or more third parties' content sources, or combine its gathering with the customer's submissions. The web-store server combines the articles into a single portable document format (PDF) (or other format types like html, text doc, XPS, ePub, etc.) file, and creates a job definition format (JDF) file. The web-store server then sends the PDF and JDF files via a network such as the Internet to a remote print server for printing the booklet for the customer.
Often times a multiplicity of customers may need similar, but not necessarily identical, booklets. For example, a booklet B in its complete compilation includes three articles A1, A2 and A3. Most customers C will order booklet B that contains all of these three articles, and the web-store server will create PDF and JDF files for booklet B containing all of the three articles, and send them to the remote print server for printing the POD orders of customers C. However, a customer C1 may have article A3 already and will order a customarily modified booklet B1 that contains only articles A1 and A2. For this POD order by customer C1, the web-store server will create different PDF and JDF files for booklet B1 that contains only articles A1 and A2, and send them to the remote print server for printing the POD order of customer C1. Likewise another customer C2 may have article A1 already and will order another customarily modified booklet B2 that contains only articles A2 and A3. For this order by customer C2, the web-store server will also create different PDF and JDF files for booklet B2 that contains only articles A2 and A3, and send them to the remote print server for printing the POD order by customer C2.
Typically, each time new PDF and JDF files are created for a new POD order, they are transmitted to the remote printer via the network. For example, when a subsequent customer C3, who also already has article A3, places a new POD order for printing a booklet B1 that contains only articles A1 and A2, the web-store server will again create PDF and JDF files for booklet B1 that contains only articles A1 and A2, and send them to the remote print server for printing the POD order of customer C3.
The size of the PDF file in a POD order can be quite large, which increases the burden on the web-store server to generate the PDF file, as well as the burden on the network to transmit the PDF file. There is a need to reduce the occurrences of generating and transmitting repetitive large PDF files, in order to increase the efficiency, and reduce the use of the resources, of both the web-store server and the network.